MANASSEH ARNOLD. Manasseh Arnold was born in
York county, Pa., September 17, 1830. In 1837 his parents removed to
Clearfield county, Pa., which was then a comparative wilderness. The
family was one of moderate means, and its members were subject to the
privations incident to the lives of the pioneers of civilization. The
facilities afforded the children for acquiring an education were of the
most limited character, and had it not been that their father, Peter
Arnold, was a man of superior learning for his time, and took great
interest in the common school system then being introduced in the State,
their education might have been entirely neglected. The instruction
received at the primitive common school during the day was supplemented by
the fathers supervision of the childrens studies in the evening, and in
this manner the subject of this sketch acquired what would at the present
time be considered a fair common school education.

Up to the age of sixteen years Mr. Arnold remained
with his parents, assisting in clearing up a farm and tilling the ground
for the maintenance of the family, when, in 1846, he left the parental
roof to seek his fortune. Coming to Clarion county, he secured a position
in a country store at a salary of seventy-two dollars per year, boarding
furnished. After one years employment his salary was increased to one
hundred and forty-four dollars, and subsequently to one hundred and
ninety-two dollars per annum. His services were so satisfactory to his
employer, Mr. James Laughlin, that on the 1st day of October, 1850 (Mr.
Arnold then being in his twentieth year), that gentleman proposed a
partnership on very favorable terms, which proposition, after due
consideration, was accepted, and a partnership was formed under the firm
name and style of Laughlin & Arnold, for the purpose of carrying on the
mercantile, lumbering, milling, and boat building business, and dealing in
live stock, at Leatherwood post-office, near St. Charles Furnace, Clarion
county, Pa. About one year subsequent to the formation of this
partnership, the senior member of the firm met with an accident in the
flouting-mill, which nearly cost him his life, and for a long time
incapacitated him for attending to business, although he eventually
recovered sufficiently to assist to some extent in the minor affairs of
the firms extensive dealings; yet he remained an invalid until the time
of his death, which occurred in 1870. Thus, in a great measure, the
management of the large business to which the firm had already attained
was assumed by the junior partner, and carried on by him successfully
until the death of his senior, a period of nearly twenty years.

On September 3, 1857, Manasseh Arnold was married to
Amanda Ross McKelvey, second daughter of Thomas McKelvey, esq., of New
Bethlehem, Pa., and the young couple immediately went to house-keeping at
the husbands place of business. The union was a very happy one, and was
followed by a family of seven children, three sons and four daughters, all
of whom are living.

Mr. Arnold continued the business of merchandising,
etc., at Leatherwood from the time of the death of Mr. Laughlin, in 1870,
until December, 1875, when he disposed of his interests at that point, and
in the following spring removed to the borough of Clarion, where he has
since resided. This step was the result of the fact that in November,
1875, he had been elected prothonotary and clerk of the courts of Clarion
county, in the face of one thousand majority adverse to his party. He
assumed the duties of his office on the first Monday of January, 1876, and
discharged the same to the entire satisfaction of the people until the
expiration of his term, in 1879.

During that time and since, Mr. Arnold acquired valuable real estate in
Clarion borough, upon which he has erected large and extensive buildings,
and in various other ways has given evidence of commendable public spirit
and enterprise. For several years he has been engaged in the dry goods
business in Clarion, and has attained a leading position in the trade,
while in connection with other parties he owns large and profitable lumber
interests on the Clarion River, in the northern part of the county.

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